Claypoole’s of Macon purchase Moberly dirt track racing facility

Macon residents David and Janelle Claypoole are the new owners of Moberly’s longtime half-mile dirt race track facility formerly known as 24 Raceway in Moberly.

The facility has been shutdown since October of 2010 for financial reasons. Late last year it was put up for sale by Ron Lueck, Jerry Milnes and Tonja Kinder who had been co-owners of the business for about the past 9 years.

“My wife and I are very excited about this new business adventure. We really enjoy the racing circuit and what it has to offer and want to keep this sport going and alive here in central Missouri,” said Claypoole, who also is involved in a Macon construction business and for 20 years he has competed in truck & tractor pull events nationwide.

“This will be a huge learning process for us because we have never been directly involved in a racing business like this before. My wife and I have learned so much since we first began negotiations in early June with the previous owners. We’re learning a lot every day.”Terms of the purchase transaction completed on Sept. 27 were not disclosed.

However, the new name of the facility and business will be Randolph County Raceway, LLC said David Claypoole on Wednesday.

“The Moberly facility is still in pretty decent shape and has a nice history to it. We’ve already begun working on the property, fixing and repairing a number of things that needs to be done,” Claypoole said. “My tentative plays is to have everything ready to reopen the dirt track next May by having a Monster Truck show and a truck & tractor pull first, and then begin having the kind of races that Moberly has been use to having in previous years.”

Claypoole said there is an initial investment of around $100,000 put into action to remove all the dirt from the oval track and then remove all the asphalt surface that’s underneath.

“Years ago the facility used an asphalt racing surface and then changes were made placing dirt on top of it for dirt track racing. This has now caused a grading problem and a big challenge to get it ready especially around the embankments and turns for races to be held,” he said. “I think it will be best to get rid of all that asphalt, rework the entire surface and bring in more dirt.”

He also said much repair work will be made the bleachers, and some improvements made to the pit areas.

“We have a lot of plans for the place, but it will take some time and money to get everything done like we would want it.”“My main goal right now is to take care of improving the dirt track and the bleachers, getting that ready for us to start offering races next May,” said Claypoole.

He plans to maintain a similar weekly racing schedule used in recent years. And that means, weather permitting, races will be held every Saturday evening starting sometime in May of 2013 through October.

Claypoole said a website for the new business currently is being created and he is hopeful it will be functional within 3 weeks along with the announcement of a business office phone number.

Joining the couple as main operators/workers of the facility will be their parents, - Joe and Kay Claypoole, and Larry and Sandy Timpe - all of Macon said David.

Formerly named Moberly Motorsports Complex, the original owner was Bob Whitehead who opened the dirt track racing business in 1989 with a 1/3-mile track oval.

Upgrades were made to extend it to a ½ mile track placing dirt over the asphalt surface and constructed a high bank to accommodate sprint cars.

24 Raceway routinely hosted five feature classes (A-Modifieds, B-Mods, Sportsman, Hobby Stock, 4-cyl. Hornets) for driver point standings each weekend and mixes in a handful of special feature events that are not common to this facility.

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